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Scott Willoughby: Hunting for Christmas tree could become tradition

The Forest Service says tree cutting gives room for neighboring trees to grow better. (Jenn Willoughby, Special to The Denver Post)

WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST — I've never really been what the gang over on Santa Claus Lane might describe as "Christmas-y." But I've always thought I'd make a decent pagan.

Never having formally studied paganism, I'm not entirely sure why, although I do enjoy hanging out in the woods quite a bit. And that seems like a sort of membership requirement.

As a result, the notion of dropping a tannenbaum in the living room has always held some appeal, even if I've traditionally bought my Christmas trees from The Home Depot. As rituals go, marking the winter solstice by bringing an evergreen into the house simply makes more sense to me than fat men in funny clothes. Especially since they tell me that Christmas was born in a barn.

So it really didn't take much cajoling to convince me to pack up the pickup with wife, daughter and dog and head on out to the woods to hunt down and harvest this year's symbolic plant. Our as-yet-unbaptized baby was born on the summer solstice, after all, and with a light snow in the forecast, the imminent arrival of winter seemed like a fine opportunity to christen her in nature's cathedral.

As many Coloradans are aware, the White River National Forest grew the regal conifer chosen as the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree. So our small clan assumed this nearby land of many uses would serve as a natural spot to satisfy our humble needs.

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For the modest fee of $10, Christmas tree cutting is allowed in most areas of the state's largest national forest (and others), except for designated wilderness areas, commercial timber sites, ski areas, administrative areas and within Glenwood Canyon. That left us with a few thousand forested acres surrounding the Holy Cross Ranger Station in Min- turn, plenty of space to roam.

"It's more of an adventure than going onto a lot. And it's cheaper — everyone likes that," district ranger Corey Myers said. "For $10, you get to go out tromping through the woods and make an adventure of finding your own tree and chopping it down."

Hunting for trees is considerably easier than most other quarry, since they don't move very fast and the ranger will actually hand you a locator map if you ask. The hardest part may be learning to properly identify species, since the Douglas fir looks an awful lot like a sub-alpine fir, neither of which looks terribly different from an Engelmann spruce or a Colorado blue spruce. Pine trees are another story altogether.

There are, of course, ways of distinguishing them by comparing needles, twigs, trunks and cones, but they're all essentially fair game. Rangers do ask that people avoid cutting Colorado's state tree, the blue spruce, recognized by its square, sharp needles and bluish tint. While frowned upon, cutting down the trees is not illegal, however.

It's best not to cut single trees in forest openings, either. Find a group of trees and select one to thin in order to promote faster growth of those remaining.

Already the Holy Cross Ranger Station has sold nearly 1,000 Christmas trees this year, although the impact to the forest is largely unnoticeable. That's primarily due to the natural dispersion of tree hunters with varying designs on adventure.

With a small bow saw, plastic tarp and tow rope in hand, our family outing took us some 15 or 20 minutes up a snow-covered trail to a pocket of firs that would make Charlie Brown proud. Don't expect tree farm perfection from a wild Christmas tree, but bear in mind that flatter branches on one side can be an advantage for a tree standing up against a wall. It will also double as a conversation starter.

"Can I just tell you that I've never done this before and I've always wanted to," my wife confessed as she carried the bundled baby down the trail in a chest pack. "I'm really happy right now."

As I plodded through the snow, the 8-foot tree strapped to my shoulders suddenly got a lot lighter. Snow began to fall. A new tradition was born.